Moodboard

I created this in photoshop, just to convey some possible ideas milling around my head about what we could do for our video. We need to have an eerie atmosphere, here highlighted by the ouiji board, "ghost bike", and woodland and church scenes. This has definatley spurred me on to other ideas, and I will keep revisiting my moodboard and building upon the ideas in order to find inspiration which our group could use for our video.

Funeral - Band of Horses

THIS IS OUR CHOSEN SONG

Lyrics

I'm coming up only to hold you under

I'm coming up only to show you wrong

And to know you is hard and we wonder

To know you all wrong, we were

Really too late to call, so we wait for

Morning to wake you; it's all we got

To know me as hardly golden

Is to know me all wrong, they were

At every occasion I'll be ready for a funeral

At every occasion once more is called a funeral

Every occasion I'm ready for the funeral

At every occasion one brilliant day funeral

I'm coming up only to show you down for

I'm coming up only to show you wrong

To the outside, the dead leaves, they all blow (alive is very poetic)

For'e (before) they died had trees to hang their hope

At every occasion I'll be ready for the funeral

At every occasion once more is called the funeral

At every occasion I'm ready for the funeral

At every occasion one brilliant day funeral



rates to Char Bailey for finding this badboy

After we all listened to this and conversed as a group, we decided that this song would be the ideal one to suit all our needs and create an interesting, abstract and verging on obscene video- definatley the type we were all going for! There is so much we could do with this song, it has so many deep meanings and it has loads of levels which you can look at the song.

We've decided to look on death and the significance of it as a broad theme in our video. Using this, we can find lots of metaphors and imagery, and it is an interesting subject to explore. When is someone really dead? Can they be dead physically, but still living in their soul? are questions we would like to explore in the video.

In a nutshell, we would like the video to be about a person (probably male), who dies at the start of the video. References are shown throughout the video that they are dead, at least on a physical level, but only at the end, when it is the "funeral" and they are buried, do they realize that "the funeral" which is being sung about is infact his.

A repeated line is "i'll be ready for the funeral", and a plaguing question throughout the video is - is he/she ready for the funeral?

More Possibilities

We've found some more possibilities, after all talking together as a group :


Funeral - Band of Horses Indie Rokkers - MGMT Stop and Stare - Fenech Soler Self Machine - I Blalme Coco

Thinking about what song

While at the gym (the best place for thinking), I listened to our 'shortlisted' songs and thought about how we could create an interesting and unusual music video with them. Then I went home and mindmapped the song which I thought had the most potential.

Here's the fruits of my labour:




I thought thinking about how we could create an actual video from the tracks would aid us in deciding which song to use for our video.

Still thinking though...

The continuous hunt for a song

After a trawling through song after song on youtube, our group decided to meet to discuss our findings so far. We have pooled our ideas together to create a shortlist of possible songs. We have also listened to each other's chosen songs and offered our opinion on them.


Alysha found a really good song whilst browsing youtube - Pink Squares by I was a cub scout

The composition of this song is really interesting and would fit our idea for an abstract video perfectly. The strong drum beat and use of a keyboard can be used together to convey a continuous journey. The lyrics are about wrongdoings in a relationship and how the singer wishes time could be turned back.


Lyrics

Don't the clocks turn back this evening?
another hour for you, to try and forget
to try and correct, your mistakes
and yes I know I'm wrong, but there's two sides to every story
baby we are not the same
and we will never feel the same

oh oh oh am I in trouble?
darling I apologise
I need you more than anything
please come back with me tonight
and oh oh oh I am in trouble,
darling i apologise
I need you more than anything
please don't ever leave my side

these gentle twists, these gentle turns
we're getting awfully close
I have my suspicions that somethings wrong, you know I should have stayed and talked
but oh I grabbed my shoes and I left the room singing oh oh oh what can I do
baby there is no need to fight
darling there is no need to hide


oh oh oh am I in trouble?
darling I apologise
I need you more, than anything
please come back with me tonight
oh oh oh am I in trouble
darling I apologise
I missed you more than anything
please don't ever leave my side


while this is a definite possibility, we are continuing the search for a while just to see if we can find any other songs for the shortlist. The only problem is we are not sure if we can create a really deep and meaningful video with this song. Therefore, we are still on the lookout.

ps. I'm now sick of listening to music

Choosing Our Song

We are now looking at which song to create a music video for. This proved to be a harder task than it looks, simply because there is so much accessible music out there none of us had any idea how to start!

Youtube was a useful starting point, using the "suggestions" side bar until we found an appropriate song.

This is the gadget we used to find related songs to the ones we were listening to. Using this, we could listen to a more obscure song that was within our musical knowledge, and forge a pathway, finding the obscure songs we hoped for.

We wanted to find something unconventional, not well known or in the charts as these songs already have connotations attached to them which we would find hard to constrain to.

Here are some possible songs found through browsing YouTube :

All the right moves - One republic Long Road to Ruin- The Foo Fighters Blow up the outside world- Soundgarden Save Me- ShinedownMy Best Theory - Jimmy Eat WorldWhere the story ends - The FrayNot Enough - Boyce AvenueHow far we've come - Matchbox 20The scene is dead ; Long live the scene - Cobra StarshipDirt Room - Blue October

When Listening to these songs a second time, I decided to narrow my selection down to three songs. I will put these forward when me and my group have our next discussion; we will listen to all the songs we have decided on and decide on a song for our video from there.

Blue October - Dirt Room

I like the anger conveyed in this video, along with the curious sense of entrapment but in some way, liberation. It also uses curious imagery such as "i want to cover you in ants bees and honey" which provides lots of opportunities to create an abstract music video, which is what we were discussing creating.

Jimmy Eat World - My Best Theory

The electric guitar and strong drum beat combine to give an eerie, electrifying sound to this song. I love the repeated chorus and the determination in the song, it gives a possible sense of victory and determination.

Cobra Starship - The scene is dead, long live the scene

I love the abstract and electro feel to this music, with a strong drum beat and catchy lyrics. It seems abstract and obscure, therefore would fit our prospective abstract theme for our music video.

Our group plan to have a meeting to pool ideas together and discuss which song we all feel will be appropriate. Working within a group means that everybody needs to feel comfortable with the song choice, and we need to have an in depth discussion to decide which track would be the best way forward.

Questionnaire

I have written a questionnaire to give to my target audience. The results will help us determine what type of media product to create.

Here is the questionnaire

(i gave it to 10 people within the age range 15-18, who are most likely to be my target audience)

These are the results I collected

What does this tell me?

This tells me that my target audience is interested in mainly narrative videos, the most popular platform for which appears to be NME music channel. Most people seem to like meaningful, hard-hitting music videos. They also like a mix of both fast and slow songs. I will keep this in mind when planning for the music video.